In, for example, DE 29 23 864 C2 a filter plate transport device is proposed wherein a driving pawl assumes the same level when the slide block moves rearwardly, i.e. during plate transport, as when the slide block moves forwardly to retrieve the next plate. When the slide block moves in a forward direction, especially during withdrawal of the front filter plate for purposes of discarding the cake, large forces must often be exerted by the driving pawl on the filter plate.
To transmit these large forces and to prevent the driving pawl from becoming disengaged during plate transport, the driving pawl must grip relatively low under the filter plate thereby resulting in the pawl, formed as a feed ramp on its lower side, when retrieving the next filter plate, traversing a relatively wide swivel or pivotal path to catch the filter plate at the top. For this reason, in the above described proposed device, the speed of reverse motion which could inherently be executed much more quickly than idling motion is limited.
Additionally, in the proposed device there are separate ramps at the two ends of the filter press frame to reverse the driving pawl and the drop lever into a position such that the slide block can be moved into its safekeeping or locking position on the filter press frame. Movement into the safekeeping position is moreover only possible there when first all filter plates of the stack have been moved to the stack of filter plates which is being newly formed.
In, for example, DE-AS 1 288 073 a filter plate transport device is also proposed wherein, in the filter plate stack, each filter plate is locked by a locking pawl to the following filter plate. The transport device comprises a plain coil chain which circles in only one direction, with a number of driving pawls being provided thereon, of which the driving pawl which has reached the foremost filter plate first releases its locking pawl each time and then transports the filter plate to the stack of filter plates being newly formed. This known device is very expensive due to the provision of many driving pawls and is not suited for use in filter presses, in which the individual filter plates must be guided into a special filter plate wash position and must be held securely at such position.